Koenraad Wiedhaup, Leyden Labs CEO

Nasal sprays to stave off virus­es days at a time? J&J’s newest biotech part­ner draws $140M for 'proac­tive' ap­proach

Vac­cines. An­ti­bod­ies. An­tivi­rals. The Covid-19 pan­dem­ic has giv­en the world a crash course on the key med­ical tools that can pro­tect hu­mans from virus­es. But one start­up be­lieves there’s plen­ty of room for an­oth­er new op­tion.

Blue-chip in­vestors are pour­ing sup­port in­to the com­pa­ny, Ley­den Labs, with a $140 mil­lion Se­ries B to back its broad “pro­tec­tion at the gate” ap­proach.

The name of the game at Ley­den is in­tranasal sprays that can be ad­min­is­tered mu­cos­al­ly — in­clud­ing com­pounds de­vel­oped in-house and for­mu­la­tions of ex­ist­ing ex­per­i­men­tal drugs.

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